As the global leader in high-speed connectivity, Ciena is committed to a people-first approach. Our teams enjoy a culture focused on prioritizing a flexible work environment that empowers individual growth, well-being, and belonging. We’re a technology company that leads with our humanity—driving our business priorities alongside meaningful social, community, and societal impact.
Blue Planet, a division of Ciena, is transforming how service providers operate their networks in the era of automation and artificial intelligence. This is an opportunity to shape next‑generation AI and agentic capabilities that simplify operations, accelerate root‑cause analysis, and help customers reduce time to recovery across large‑scale, mission‑critical environments. As the Product Manager for AI/ML and agent‑driven applications, you will guide strategy and delivery for advanced automation features that have a measurable impact on operational efficiency.
How You Will Contribute:
Define and drive AI/ML and agent-based network automation solutions within Blue Planet, a division of Ciena, network-assurance platforms tailored for Tier-1 service providers.
Develop roadmaps for AI/ML and agentic features that enhance automation, observability, root cause analysis (RCA), anomaly detection, and operational efficiency in complex network environments.
Identify high-value service-provider use cases across domains such as IP/MPLS, optical, 5G RAN/CORE, transport, broadband access, and virtual service delivery where agents autonomously analyze telemetry, correlate events, and execute operational actions.
Define clear product requirements, acceptance criteria, and UX workflows for AI-driven features, including RCA engines, anomaly detection models, intent agents, remediation agents, and predictive analytics.
Collaborate with data science, backend engineering, UX, platform teams, and field engineering to deliver carrier-grade software aligned with reliability, scalability, and security standards.
Coordinate model lifecycle processes, including training pipelines, model evaluation, drift detection, guardrails, explainability, and versioning.
Partner with Tier-1 operators to identify automation gaps, measure the impact of AI-driven capabilities on MTTR, SLA compliance, and operational workload, and translate feedback into prioritized product iterations.
The Must Haves:
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
12+ years of experience building and delivering production-quality software products.
Expertise in agent-execution runtimes for delivering AI-driven operational assistants, RAG pipelines, and closed-loop automation.
Strong understanding of network operations and management within Tier-1 telecom networks.
Hands-on familiarity with ML methods such as supervised learning, anomaly detection, probabilistic models, and graph-based analytics, along with relevant tooling like model-ops frameworks and data-orchestration systems.
Nice to Haves:
Experience working within a Tier-1 service provider or large-scale network/data center environment, or developing products for these environments.
Proven expertise in building AI Agents to query big data solutions for actionable insights or to drive automated operational outcomes.
Familiarity with network-operations tooling such as NMS/OSS systems, orchestration, intent systems, policy engines, and root-cause analysis platforms.
Knowledge of carrier networking technology domains, including IP/MPLS, optical transport, data-center fabrics, 5G/ORAN, or cloud-native network functions.
#LI-FA
At Ciena, we are committed to building and fostering an environment in which our employees feel respected, valued, and heard. Ciena values the diversity of its workforce and respects its employees as individuals. We do not tolerate any form of discrimination.
Ciena is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status.
If contacted in relation to a job opportunity, please advise Ciena of any accommodation measures you may require.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field
- 12+ years of experience building and delivering production-quality software products
- Expertise in agent-execution runtimes for delivering AI-driven operational assistants
- Understanding of network operations within Tier-1 telecom networks
- Familiarity with ML methods and relevant tooling
Ciena Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Ciena and has not been reviewed or approved by Ciena.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is often characterized as competitive or above-market in certain roles and regions, with references to market-aligned salary ranges and transparency around pay bands.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is frequently framed as comprehensive, including medical, dental, and vision, with indications that coverage can extend to dependents and is viewed as a meaningful component of total rewards.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off offerings are described as flexible and generous, including Flex/uncapped PTO in many cases and additional paid time for volunteering.
Ciena Insights
What We Do
Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is a global leader in networking systems, services, and software. We build the world’s most adaptive networks to enable our customers to deliver richer, more connected experiences for all users. At our core, Ciena is a company rooted in people. We prioritize deep, collaborative relationships within our teams and alongside our customers, partners, and communities around the world. For three-plus decades, we’ve brought our humanity to our relentless pursuit of innovation. We continue to lead the evolution of networking with a strong track record of industry firsts. As end-user expectations skyrocket, our customers and their networks must transform. Ciena powers this transformation by driving next-generation solutions built for maximum openness and agility—today and into the future. Corporate/Brand Values: • Customer First • Integrity • Velocity • Innovation • Outstanding People We're the perfect size for you to make an impact. W Only Ciena has the depth of expertise and the culture of collaboration and partnership required to help our partners evolve. We do this by strategically integrating hardware, services, and software in an open environment to ensure our clients’ networks are ‘fit for flexibility’ today and into the f
Why Work With Us
We are known for our industry-firsts, including the first coherent optical solution, converged packet-optical platform, and intelligence automation platform. Our commitment extends beyond innovation, logging in over 35,000 volunteer hours and $2 million to worthy causes in 2023. We're the perfect size and culture for you to make a difference.
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